Rafal Majka and Nicolas Roche proved that they are up for the challenge of fighting for the overall at this year's Giro d'Italia when the race hit the first small hills in today's fifth stage. While the Irishman launched a gutsy attack in the finale, the Pole finished fifth on a stage that didn't suit him perfectly.

Today’s stage won by Lampre’s Diego Ulissi took the riders 203 kilometers from Taranto to Viggiano in the southern part of Italy and presented the favorites with the possibility of a stage win or even seconds for the GC. But despite a crash with less than 20 k to go and very high pace on the final climb all the big race favorites avoided any lost seconds. Tinkoff-Saxo captain Rafal Majka finished 5th and advanced to the same position in the general classification. Even though the short and average gradient uphill finish didn’t suit Majka, the Polish captain sees his 5th place as a proof of excellent race shape.
 
“Today was not my terrain. I need steeper and longer climbs, but my rivals decided to use the final climb to gain seconds so I followed and finished among the best. I’m a light climber so naturally a climb with an average gradient of about 4-5 percent is not my cup of tea but I felt strong today and received fantastic support from the whole team, who made sure that I didn’t have to spend too much energy during the stage”, says Rafal Majka after pulling the white jersey over his head.
 
Even though Majka will ride in white on Thursday’s 247-kilometer stage to Montecassino, he’s still second in the youth competition – 26 seconds after the 23-year old race leader Michael Matthews. But Rafal Majka expects another fight and hopes to make the white jersey officially his after the more challenging finish tomorrow.
 
“I will ride in white tomorrow but it’s not really my jersey. So tomorrow I’ll make it mine”, says the talented captain with a laugh and continues. “Let’s see how the race develops and if Matthews is able to hang on. Today he did really well and defended his leadership, so we’ll need a tough final if I’m going to take 26 seconds”, finishes Majka who also has his eyes set on other jerseys in the coming stages.

“It was one those tricky stages where you could lose a lot of time due to the lumpy finish with nasty wet descents and a short steep uphill finish," sports director Lars Michaelsen said. "But we had both Majka and Roche up there and they both did a solid job. Nico tried to set things up for Rafa who finished fifth among the main GC contenders. It proves that Rafa is ready and extremely motivated to do well. Tomorrow, there’s another uphill finish and we have to make sure that we do not lose time.
 
Michael Matthews (Orica GreenEdge) leads the race overall. Rafal Majka is 5th - 26 seconds behind Matthews while Nicolas Roche is 7th - 37 seconds behind.